Florence Fire Department's latest digs...

The City of Florence held the "ribbon" cutting (it was actually unhooking a fire hose) for the Fire Department's new Station No. 5 this morning. Station No. 5 is located on E. Redbud Lane, almost on the corner of Redbud and Howe Springs Road, right near Southside Middle and South Florence High Schools. It has been over thirty years since the city last built a fire station.

We spoke with one long time firefighter this morning who told us he came to work for the fire deparment not long after they built No. 4 in 1980. He was told they would have No. 5 by 1985. So the city fire fighters have been waiting on this station for over 25 years. That's pretty unbelievable when you think about how much the City of Florence has expanded over that time.

It really is a nice facility and one that was badly needed. Congrats to the City of Florence Firefighters on their new digs.

FIghting for the terrorists rights...

Thanks to the stalwart work of Republicans on the House Judiciary committee this past week, suspected terrorists can still enjoy their Second Amendment right to bear arms here in the good ole U. S. of A. Republican Congressmen like Rep. Louie "Terror Baby" Ghomert killed an amendment that would have restricted firearm sales to people on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

The House Judiciary Committee was marking up legislation to renew certain provisions of the Patriot Act when Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) proposed the amendment to limit the sale of guns to those on the watchlist. Quigley's point was that Republicans have absolutely no problem denying people on that list civil liberties, but god forbid they should infringe one iota on the NRA. And the Republicans proved him right.

So just in case you're scoring at home...Miranda? Not a chance. Due Process? What are you, some America-hating commie?! Let 'em stockpile AR-15s? Sheeeet...this is America man, everyone's got the right to get strapped...

Nikki Haley releases official anthem for Governor's office...

In case you missed it, our Governor gave herself a new title this week: "Flavor of the Month."

Coming on top her recent statements giving herself an absolute A+++ and letting us in on the fact that she has yet to make a mistake in her first 100 days on the job (letting us all know how low the bar is if she considers the Darla Moore clusterfuck a "success"), it should come as no surprise that the Governor has instated a new song for her office. Call it South Carolina's own "Hail to the Chief."

Revisiting the "hammer of Thor" and abandoned properties in Florence

Back in February of 2009, not long after assuming office, City of Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela followed through on one of the signature issues of his campaign: attacking the problem of abandoned properties in the city. Wukela did so by signing several Rule to Show Cause petitions against abandoned property owners. At the time, it was noted:

Wukela summed up the action in saying, "the city is not gonna sit on its hands," and that the city was basically, "calling these people on the carpet."

Well...has the city followed through or have they sat on their hands? Wukela's website has posted a list of the abandoned properties the city has dealt with since he came to office. Take a gander and decide for yourself.

Late Update: The Mayor's website has posted a link where one can look at a map via Google Maps and see the properties.

Florence County GOP and its "big tent"...

In case you missed it, the Florence County Republican Party has been awfully busy showing folks just how big a tent their group is recently. Yesterday, the Florence Morning News ran a piece about how the Florence County Republican Party had passed two resolutions "admonishing" Florence City Councilmen Buddy Brand and Glynn Willis for their support of the smoking ordinance which is scheduled for final reading at this coming Monday's city council meeting.

None of this should take anyone by surprise. After the last election, members of the Florence GOP decided it was time for a party purge after watching their candidate for Solicitor lose (handedly). That campaign had been quite divisive within the local GOP, as a number of longtime Republican supporters had publicly endorsed the incumbent, Ed Clements. You may recall that one of the targets of that purge was none other than long-time oracle of politics here in South Carolina, Dr. Neal Thigpen. That just goes to show you the political acumen of the decision makers currently calling the shots in the local GOP party.

Be that as it may, the smoking ordinance has brought out the long knives yet again in the Florence County GOP. We're sure Willis and Brand were not surprised. Afterall, at a townhall meeting held at Moore Middle School to discuss the ordinance, one wanna-be rising star of these folks got up and told Willis and Brand not to run as Republicans again. You would think these folks had learned during the last election that making lithmus tests out of certain issues or races does not win you support. It winds up making you lose by pretty damn big margins in a record-Republican coattail year. No...the Florence Republican Party seems content to let itself be taken over by folks who want to steer into the skid. They are embracing the crazy.

In response to the resolutions, Councilman Brand said:

the passing of the resolutions serves as an indicator of the leadership
currently within the Florence County Republican Party.

“In every organization you look at leadership,” he said. “I would just say the leadership is light there.”

Hey...that's one of your elected officials, GOP...you talk to 'em.

Exclusive: Video of raid proves Osama was unarmed...

and BTPC's military expert William Money (out'a Missouri, killer of women and children) says, "he should have armed himself if he was gonna kill Americans."

House GOP Defends us against the Gays...

Yesterday, we saw this item from The Hill about how Republicans in the House Administration Committee had agreed on a contract with attorney Paul Clement where they will pay Clement $500,000 to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. You probably remember the Obama administration announcing not too long ago how they weren't gonna waste time and resources defending that anymore. What...you don't remember all the celebration and congratulating Obama got from the Tea Party for curbing useless, unnecessary spending? Huh...there wasn't any such propers given by those bastions of government spending oversight? Oh...

Putting aside a very real question for all these god-fearing Republicans (namely...if God hates the gays so much, WHY DOES HE KEEP MAKING SO MANY OF THEM?), we left that article with this question: Only $500,000 dollars?!?! Really...that's it?

We know you guys are taking heat from the Tea Party to reign in spending...but we're talking about homosexuality here. Remember, you let these fags and lesbos marry each other, next thing you know, your 6-year old son is jamming his tongue down the Golden Retriever's throat (or so says Rick Santorum). You wanna try to combat that on the cheap? You really wanna try to get through the pearly gates and have to explain to St. Peter why you didn't go at least a million to fight this dastardly stuff? Don't get cheap on us now, Dorothy...

Seriously...what a colossal and retarded waste of time and money. For the love of Christ, with the laughingstock the institution of marriage has become in this country thanks to the heterosexuals, you would think they'd be eager to welcome the homosexuals into it. Aren't they tired of the gays being so happy (for crying out loud, their name is a synonym for "happy")? Shouldn't "straights" want to make the gays as miserable and bitter as they are? What better way to achieve that than marriage?

To quote one of the great philosophers of our generation: Let it go, Louie...

This cat Obama is a bad mutha...

Shut yo mouth!

While acknowledge the fact that the news of Osama Bin Laden taking the dirt nap is a testament to the hard work and sacrifices of our military and intelligence personel, let's not lose sight of the role President Obama played in this.

Unless you can't read between the lines, it's pretty evident that the President not only pulled the trigger on invading a soverign nation's airspace when he greenlit this mission in Pakistan...but Obama okay'd putting a team of snakeeaters on the ground to make sure Bin Laden got Got.

Given the details that have leaked out since last night (it was a huge "mansion" compound in a suburb of Islamabad, less than a mile from one of the most prestigious Pakistani military training facilities, that just got built about 5 years ago; we have been working on reconning this place about that long; and Pakistan scrambled jets), it seems quite obvious that President Obama did what he said he would: Do whatever it took to bring Bin Laden to justice.

Remember back during the election when Obama was considered reckless and comments about being willing to go into Pakistan if we knew Bin Laden was there were trotted out as signs of "inexperience?" In August of 2007, Obama said:

"I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Remember McCain playing that card to Larry King in July of 2008?

KING: If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?

MCCAIN: Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation. I think the Pakistanis would want bin Laden out of their hair and out of their country and it's causing great difficulties in Pakistan itself.

Or how about the Mittster trying a similar attack during a televised GOP debate:

"[Obama] went from going to sit down to tea with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean, he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week."

You gotta ask yourself after last night's news: WHO DO YOU WANT TAKING THOSE 3AM PHONE CALLS, NOW???

Let's also not forget, as we already see statements from people like Cantor and Rumsfeld crediting Obama with following W's lead...that by his own account, W downplayed the necessity in tracking down Bin Laden. Bush's comments about not giving much thought to Bin Laden and not considering him that big a deal are well documented. And we're of the mind that a lot of that was BS, just meant to deflect the fact that we had not yet managed to catch the guy. But there is one pretty undeniable fact that questions the "vigilance" W really had about catching the guy: in July of 2006, the W administration shut down the unit that had been hunting Bin Laden for a decade.

Compare that to the CINC we see through John Dickerson's piece in Slate, money quote:

In June 2009, Obama directed his CIA director to "provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice" Osama Bin Laden. By August 2010 intelligence officials had identified the suspicious compound where Osama lived.

So...while the men and women of our military (especially that SEAL team) and and ingelligence deservedly should be championed for this succes, let's remember the Big Dog that pushed to make it happen.

We should have known we'd eventually have this news from this picture: